Day 2 \u2013 Sunday, May 26<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I was awakened by a peal of thunder at 4:15. I didn\u2019t hear any\ntornado sirens, so that was good. But I wasn\u2019t exactly sure I\u2019d\nhear any if they were sounding. I glanced out the window and things\ndidn\u2019t look too bad so I went back to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Breakfast wasn\u2019t scheduled to be available until 6:30, so I loaded up the car first. It was raining pretty good. I was in the breakfast area by 6:25 and people were already eating. So I loaded up a plate with sausage gravy and biscuits, some sort of cheesy scrambled eggs, and potatoes. Then back up to the room to brush my teeth and I was on the road by 6:54.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By now the rain had slackened somewhat. But I quickly fogged up\nthe interior of all the cockpit glass. Cracking the windows didn\u2019t\nhelp much, and neither did the defroster. Good thing I carry a towel\nwith me. Usually it\u2019s in the boot, but I had anticipated just such\na situation and had it in the cab with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I found my way to Riverview Park easily enough. It\u2019s a dark\nforest early in the morning in the rain. I found a place with a view\nof the river (not as obvious as you might think, given the park\u2019s\nname) and took a look around. It was still raining, so I didn\u2019t\nhang around. Had it been nicer, I\u2019d have explored the park a bit\nmore. I was hoping to see some barges on the river. I did see some\nwhen I was back on the highway, crossing the bridge, but they weren\u2019t\nvisible from the overlook I visited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first section of the drive was on the Interstate. My biggest\nissue with interstate highways is the truck traffic. There was none\nthis morning, so I was unbothered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My planned route had me heading north on I-172, but Navigator\ndecided to send me farther east on I-72 instead. This turned out to\nbe an interesting route. My first intermediate destination was\nHavana, IL, on the Illinois River. The route I ended up following was\nIL 100, along the western shore of the river from Beardstown to\nHavana. The river was well outside its banks through here, but it\nlooks to me like they\u2019re prepared for this and perhaps it\u2019s a\nregular occurrence. One house on the river side of the road was built\non stilts, and many of the trees along here were standing in water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As it was, I crossed the Illinois River three times. Once on the interstate and twice on US routes. These two bridges are older, steel girder bridges. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so I won\u2019t say these old bridges are more beautiful. It could be argued that the newer bridges have a simplistic beauty to them. But I find these steel girder bridges more interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing up these notes and referring to the map, I see that I narrowly missed visiting Lotus, Illinois. I passed within a few miles of it, but it\u2019s so small it never appeared on any signs. Had I been on the correct road I\u2019d have had to make a short detour. I doubt it is big enough to merit a post office; from the satellite photo it looks to be a grain elevator and about six houses, about a thousand feet from the highway. Presumably, there\u2019d have been at least a sign of some sort. Oh, well, I\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My third intermediate navigation point was Logansport. (The second\nwasn\u2019t interesting enough to get a comment.) I generally edit my\nroute for these navigation points so that I stay on the highway\nrather than detouring through town. I\u2019m glad for this one that I\ndidn\u2019t. Logansport sits beside the Wabash river and my route was on\na side street on the south bank of the river. It, too, is running\nhigh, submerging one of the islands in the middle of the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rest of the trip was fairly boring. US 24 and US 30, with a short shot on I-469. Both 24 and 30 may as well have been interstates, being four-lane divided highway, often limited access. In Ohio the speed limit was 70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I made good time. Rather than having the motel as my destination, I had the track. Chin Motorsports does registration and tech the night before, but I figured I\u2019d miss that, arriving after 6. But today\u2019s event there (either NASA or PCA, I heard both) went late due to some weather and when I arrived I found myself at the end of a long line waiting to get in. So rather than just taking a picture of the sign and heading to the motel, I waited around, got registered and teched. Tech inspection amounted to me giving them my completed form and them checking that the number on the car matches the number on the form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After checking in at the hotel, I found a gas station and a restaurant. So I\u2019m all ready to go in the morning. It\u2019s about a 20 minute drive to the track, and the drivers meeting is scheduled for 7:10, so I\u2019ll try to be out the door by 6:30. That should give me time to find a spot in the paddock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today’s miles: 557 Total miles: 1,217<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Day 1 \u2013 Saturday, May 25 Before heading out I was feeling a bit of \u2026 trepidation isn\u2019t the right word. More like low-grade anxiety. A good chunk of the center of the country has been getting hit with nasty … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/grunschev.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_4417_stitch_resize.jpg?fit=584%2C226\")